Ripple still struggling this week, today down at $0.75 as of 3pm on March 14 – down 4.3 percent on opening this morning.

The cryptocurrency is down from $1.15 on February 14, meaning month on month the coin has seen losses of $0.50.

Today’s fall comes amid a major blow to the cryptocurrency industry with almost all the major coins in the red.

Bitcoin is priced at $9,072 this afternoon, with Ethereum down at $673.

Wednesday, March 14

4pm update: Ripple’s transaction fees will set coin apart

Despite the lacklustre market value – Craig Cole, from CryptoMap, explained that the cryptocurrency still has the technology to “disrupt the industry”.

He stated that the cryptocurrency’s ability to manage a vast number of transactions at once could differentiate it from other crypto offerings on the market.

He said: “Its faster transaction speeds and lower fees make it easier for financial systems to embrace the virtual currency, which is partly why Ripple’s value has increased dramatically just this year.

“Ripple is helping financial institutions save money and it is only expected to become even more prevalent in payment flows.

“The virtual currency is certainly on the rise and has the potential to be the first token to truly disrupt an industry, and if it does, expect XRP to reach Bitcoin-like levels of ubiquity in the near future.”

3pm update: Google confirmed today that it will ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related content from June this year

Following Facebook in the banning of all ads promoting financial products and services tied to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, Google has said that it will ban ads for unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency and financial spread betting among others.

Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads, said in a statement: “Improving the ads experience across the web, whether that’s removing harmful ads or intrusive ads, will continue to be a top priority for us.”

The news has dented sentiment and cryptocurrencies are falling as a result. Bitcoin is down 4.1% against the dollar to $8,775.39 at 10.55 a.m. GMT (6.55 a.m. ET), Ethereum is down 3.3% to $666.77, Ripple is down 3.8% to $0.74, and Bitcoin Cash is down 3.2% to $1,018.25.

Mati Greenspan, an analyst with trading platform eToro, said in an email on Wednesday morning: “Google joined Facebook in the all-out crypto advertisement ban. So no more ads for ICOs, or crypto, or bitcoin in search results for the time being.

“Bitcoin is having a bad morning on the back of the announcement and has just broken below $9,000. As we’ve been discussing for a few months already, the long-term support remains just below $8,000 a coin so we’re still holding that level just fine.”